Main News of December 19

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he envied US President Barack Obama’s ability to spy on the rest of the world

* An international team led by Britain’s Prince Harry has visited a Russian research station in Antarctica as part of a charitable trek to the South Pole, a Russian polar research institute said

* Kiev put its political association and free-trade talks with the European Union on hold, but is ready to resume them if favorable terms are offered, the Ukrainian president said

* An ambitious European space telescope has separated successfully from its Russian launch vehicle and started moving towards its working orbit 1.5 million kilometers above Earth, the Russian Space Agency, Roscosmos, said

RUSSIA

* More than 1,300 journalists were accredited Wednesday for President Vladimir Putin’s marathon press conference, the ninth such event over the three terms he has served as head of state

* Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he will in the nearest future pardon jailed former Yukos owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky

* Russian President Vladimir Putin described Edward Snowden, the former US National Security Agency contractor who has received temporary asylum in Russia, as a noble man

* A Moscow court said Thursday that it was halting prosecution of four protesters accused of attacking police last year at an opposition rally that deteriorated into mass riots

* Russian President Vladimir Putin said at marathon press conference Thursday that Greenpeace activists detained this year will likely be amnestied, but that their jailing should serve as a lesson

* Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday described his support for traditional values as being motivated by a growing need to defend Russia from “aggressive” minorities

* President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that a multibillion dollar financial assistance package agreed with Ukraine earlier this week was a loan, and that he expects the money to be returned

* Russia’s lower house of parliament gave its final approval on Wednesday to a bill allowing nature reserves to be turned into areas where limited construction, logging and other activities might be allowed

POLITICS

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday accused the European Union of trying to dictate to Ukraine

* Street protests such as those taking place in Ukraine would not be tolerated by the authorities in Russia, President Vladimir Putin said

* In what will likely be seen as another snub to his prime minister, Russian President Vladimir Putin listed the head of the Communist party and a firebrand nationalist as the country’s most influential politicians